Giving Tuesday 2025
This Giving Tuesday help Partridge Creek Farm support food access for Ishpeming students in the Middle School Garden!
Our base goal: $5,000
The Middle School Garden, stewarded by PCF is in need of vital repairs to ensure students safety, accessibility, and access to fresh food.
Our Base Goal: $5,000
The Ishpeming Middle School garden, just across from the Middle and High School, has grown into an inspiring educational space for youth in the Farm-to-School program. Until recently, Partridge Creek Farm was fortunate to rent this space at no cost through a generous handshake agreement with a community member. This summer, the Ishpeming School District #1 officially purchased the site, ensuring this vibrant garden will continue to nurture curiosity and learning for Ishpeming students for years to come.
After six wonderful years, the wooden garden beds are showing their age and have begun splintering, exposing rusty nails, and becoming unsafe for our young gardeners. Plus, their size makes them a bit too large for students to manage comfortably.
We’re raising $5,000 to replace all eight beds with Vego brand USDA-approved, corrosion-resistant, food-safe metal ones. These durable beds will keep soil secure and be perfectly sized for our middle school crew to confidently garden in.
In addition, we hope to replace the existing fence with a sturdier 7-foot version to keep critters out and protect both our students and the produce they work hard to grow.
Why Your Support Matters:
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The current beds are unsafe; many are rotted through and some have rusty hardware protruding from them. New USDA-approved Vego brand beds are made with food safe anti-rust materials that will eliminate hazards like sharp nails and splintered wood.
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ADA-compliant beds will ensure that all Ishpeming students can learn in the garden and access the beds safely.
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The Middle School Garden supports middle Farm-to-School classes, the Farm-to-School Summer Camp, Garden Club, and the High School CTE (career technical education) Horticulture class, Flipping the Food System.
Ages range form under 18 to over 65 reflecting the intergenerational population of Ishpeming
Nearly half have a family income of less $50,000
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Students who engage in gardening are more likely to try new foods, develop healthier eating habits, and feel connected to their community.
Our Youth Programs:
Partridge Creek Farm’s Educational Mission is to provide high-quality programs for our community, to members of all ages and abilities.
We aim to inspire individuals of all ages to connect with their food, develop sustainable growing practices, and cultivate a sense of community.
We strive to create a welcoming environment that promotes hands-on learning, fosters environmental stewardship, and encourages personal growth through agricultural education. By creating replicable, physically and fiscally accessible programs, we are able to share with other organizations in our region.
Our Education Programs that Serve Ishpeming Youth:
Farm-to-School Program (5th-6th grade students)
Healthy Cooking Program (5th-6th grade students)
5th Grade Farm Stand
Homeschool Hangout (all ages, partnership with the Ishpeming Library)
Garden Club (all ages)
High School CTE (Career Technical Education) Horticulture Class, Flipping the Food System
All of the programs above utilize the Ishpeming Middle School Garden as an educational space.
Top left: Bird’s eye view of the School Garden. Photo by Lindsay Bean. Top right: Students looking at tomatoes in the School Garden. Photo by Camden Kinnie. Bottom left: Education Coordinator teaching students. Photo by Camden Kinnie. Bottom right: A Farm to School student looks at a garden bed full of kale. Photo by Camden Kinnie.
Top left: 5th grade students at the 5th Grade Farm Stand, photo by Camden Kinnie. Top right: Education Coordinator Keats Dormont teaches students in Homeschool Hangout, photo by Mary Andronis. Bottom left: Students cook during the Healthy Cooking Program, photo by Mary Andronis. Bottom right: High School CTE students cut local apples for cider, photo by: Keats Dormont.
Our reach goal: $8,000
Any funds collected beyond the $5,000 base goal will go towards improving the Middle School Garden and Farm to School programming.
Ishpeming Middle School Garden learn about kale with Education Coordinator Keats Dormont! Photo by Camden Kinnie.
Any funds collected beyond the $5,000 base goal to replace the garden beds will be invested back into the garden space making this space more accessible and usable for our students and youth.
Our Reach Goal: $8,000
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Seasonally, PCF purchases compost to help boost soil and nourish veggies in the school garden. This is an essential yet costly part of gardening.
Additional funds to purchase topsoil and compost would free up funds that could be used for youth programming.
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Community Grazing beds are FREE garden beds located outside of our School Garden. Community members are invited to harvest what they need free of cost and leave some for others.
These beds were installed in 2019 and are in disrepair as well. With additional funds we’d be able to begin replacing these beds for our community with Vego brand garden beds.
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Our existing gate works…sometimes. And other times it can put up a good fight. Having a new, functional, reliable gate that takes into mind accessibility, will ensure easy access to our Garden Members.
This fence is also critical in keeping critters out of our produce that students are working hard to grow and study. This fence will also ensure students’ safety by ensuring they are safe within the garden and gate.
FAQs
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Farm-to-School programming aims to connect students with local farmers and produce through hands-on learning opportunities.
At PCF our Farm-to-School Program was established in 2013 with a goal to connect Ishpeming’s youth to the food they are eating.
Now, in 2025, PCF’s Farm-to-School program welcomes Ishpeming 5th-6th grade students to the Middle School Garden in the fall and spring for an outdoor learning experience.
In the winter PCF teaches a healthy cooking class for the same 5th and 6th grade classes. This course aims to increase students interest in healthy and new recipes through independent cooking recipes featuring fresh produce they’ve learned about and watched grow in the garden.
PCF’s Farm-to-School program is unique because it creates a full circle curriculum where students can follow their food from seed, to growing, to harvesting, and then to cooking.Learn more about our youth programming here
PCF’s Farm-to-School programs are important to Ishpeming’s youth because they provide alternate and unique learning experiences for students. PCF aims to connect students with their food! Studies show that when students see where and how their food was grown they tend to make healthier eating choices.
52% of our youth receive free or reduced lunch and qualify for the free breakfast program meaning rely on access to food at school.
According to the Farm to School Network:
Farm-to-School Programming Showed an:
Increase in school engagement and positive attitudes about school and learning.
Enhanced overall academic achievement in K-12 settings, including grades and test scores
Increase in opportunities to combat racial and economic inequities in the school food system.
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Currently, PCF’s Farm-to-School program serves Ishpeming Middle School Students in 5th-6th grade. In high school these students then have the opportunity to learn with PCF’s Education Coordinator Keats Dormont in the CTE (Career Technical Education) course called Flipping the Food System.
46% of our 2025 students stated that they love eating fruits and vegetables after attending Farm-to-School
66% of our 2025 students stated they now understand how plants grow after attending Farm-to-School
While the Ishpeming Middle School Garden primarily serves Ishpeming Students, there are other PCF youth programs that benefit from this site.
Homeschool Hangout:
In partnership with the Ishpeming Carnegie Public Library PCF has hosted Homeschool Hangout at the site. This program welcomes homeschool students and families to the library for an exciting lesson and PCF is a proud partner of this program.
Farm-to-School Summer Camp:
In 2025 PCF’s Farm-to-School Summer Camp in partnership with Marquette Alger RESA welcomed 5th-8th grade youth in Marquette County to the Middle School Garden for fun garden activities. PCF will continue to offer this program in 2026!
Garden Club:
In September of 2025 PCF invited Ishpeming Students to join Garden Club. This is an after school club where students are welcome to spend time in the garden and help with important garden activities. This opportunity provides our youth a space to connect with one another through food.
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PCF is committed to providing our community with access to equitably produced nutritious food. Community Grazing beds are FREE garden beds located outside of the Middle School Garden (402 Cleveland Ave Ishpeming) and the Community Garden (301 E Euclid Ishpeming) where our community is invited to harvest produce for free.
Learn more about community grazing beds here
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The Greenhouse is a new addition to the Ishpeming Middle School Garden. PCF began constructing this structure in summer of 2025 with the help of community volunteers.
This Greenhouse was funded through the Michigan Department of Education Office of Career Technical 61S grant awarded to PCF and the Ishpeming School District #1.
This Greenhouse will be utilized by all ages in the Ishpeming School District, but, will be primarily used by the High School CTE horticulture class as an outdoor classroom to learn about sustainable agriculture practices.
Partridge Creek Farm is grateful for the support of our grant funders, whose contributions enable projects like this to come to fruition. While grant funding is often designated for specific purposes and typically does not cover expenses such as replacing garden beds, these improvements are essential to maintaining a safe and enriching environment for our students’ gardening experience.
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You can help us reach our $5,000 goal this Giving Tuesday by:
Donating to our campaign. Every dollar helps!
Join us at Congress Pizza in Ishpeming on Giving Tuesday, December 2nd to enjoy a pizza and support this campaign.
Sharing this ask to your network via social media, text messaging, or talking to your friends about why you think this is important.
Sign up for our newsletter to stay in touch.
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Partridge Creek Farm is committed to ensuring our community has access to fresh, affordable food in our community.
Our Farm Stand is Open June-October each season. We accept SNAP/EBT as payment, Food as Medicine, and Senior Project Fresh.